Ignore the rumors: Ballots should get marked in Michigan

A false claim spreading in communities around the country holds that a ballot is thrown out the moment a poll worker writes on it. The claim is false. Election officials in multiple states and independent fact-checkers who examined the claim say poll-worker markings are a routine part of ballot verification and do not, by themselves, disqualify a ballot. The rumor is circulating broadly as a general election claim, and it arrives in the closing weeks before Dearborn’s in-person early voting opens at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 24 — a moment when a mistaken fear at the counter could keep a neighbor from voting at all.

What the Worker Actually Writes

Under Michigan Administrative Code R 168.773(3), every ballot must carry, printed or written, the number of its precinct or absent-voter-counting board. When a Dearborn voter checks in, the election inspector hands over an official ballot and a secrecy sleeve, and records the ballot’s numbered stub and the voter’s number on the Application to Vote — check-in paperwork, not the area where the voter marks their choices. At the tabulator, the receiving election inspector compares the ballot’s stub number against the number recorded on the Application to Vote; when they match, the inspector removes the detachable stub and the voter feeds the ballot into the tabulator.

The number an election worker writes identifies the precinct or counting board so the ballot can be verified, retrieved, and sorted properly. It is not a record of how any voter voted. And because the numbered stub is removed before the ballot is tabulated, the identifying mark tied to the voter is gone before the ballot is counted — the secret ballot stays secret.

Even when a number goes missing, Michigan has a remedy rather than a rejection. A June 26, 2026 Michigan Court of Appeals decision in Republican National Committee v. Benson, No. 368615, held that state law does not automatically require rejecting an absentee ballot whose stub is missing or whose number does not match the return envelope; such ballots may be processed as challenged ballots. A missing or mismatched number is not an automatic disqualifier.

“Michigan’s elections are secure and safe and the results are an accurate reflection of the will of the people,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said. “In every election, over 1,600 bipartisan professional election administrators and thousands of trained poll workers ensure that the law is followed and that every valid vote counts.”

A Mistake Gets a Replacement Ballot

Michigan’s printed ballot instruction tells voters that if they make a mistake, they should return the ballot to the election official and obtain a new one rather than trying to erase or correct a stray mark. On Election Day, when a voter accidentally spoils a ballot, inspectors record it as spoiled in the electronic pollbook, mark the physical ballot “Spoiled,” seal it in the Spoiled and Defective Ballots Envelope, and hand the voter a fresh ballot to vote then and there. The spoiled ballot is not counted as a valid vote; it is kept separately for accounting and audit, and the replacement ballot is the one tabulated and counted.

There is one exception, and it has nothing to do with a worker’s mark. If a voter deliberately shows a marked ballot to someone in the polling place, the ballot is placed in an envelope labeled “Rejected” with the reason recorded on the envelope, and the voter is not given a replacement and may not vote again in that election. An accidental mistake is cured with a fresh ballot; only a deliberate public display of a marked ballot forfeits the vote. A routine mark a poll worker makes is never that.

The Remedy in Practice

A recent Wayne County example shows the system replacing a flawed ballot rather than penalizing the voter. After a printing error placed a Belleville Area District Library Board partial-term candidate in the full-term race, at least 8,500 absentee voters in Belleville, Sumpter Township, and Van Buren Township received replacement ballots. Officials said anyone who had already returned the flawed ballot would not be penalized — election workers would duplicate the voter’s selections onto a corrected ballot so it could still be counted.

Voters with questions can reach Dearborn City Clerk George T. Darany’s office at the Dearborn Administrative Center, 16901 Michigan Ave.; phone (313) 943-2010 or email [email protected]. Dearborn’s early-voting site for the November 3, 2026 general election is the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave., open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from Saturday, October 24 through Sunday, November 1, 2026. Michigan this year continues no-reason absentee voting and at least nine days of early in-person voting. Voters can confirm their assigned early-voting site and hours at Michigan.gov/Vote; Wayne County’s Elections Division can be reached at (313) 224-5525 or [email protected].